AREA COLLEGE NOTEBOOK

A West Coast Conference scheduling oddity has Pepperdine playing San Francisco on Friday for the second time in a week.

The Waves (14-5, 4-0) prevailed on the road Saturday in the first meeting, 76-70, but defeating the same team twice in such a short period will be difficult. Especially when San Francisco (12-4, 1-3) already is in a must-win situation to remain in the conference race.

“Generally after playing a team, you don’t see them again for three weeks or a month,” Pepperdine Coach Jan van Breda Kolff said.

“They are looking to make adjustments because they lost the first time. The team that wins sometimes feels as though it can just go out and play the same way the second time. But if we don’t make adjustments, we are setting ourselves up for failure. We have to anticipate what their adjustments will be and prepare ourselves.”

Most WCC teams must play one opponent in back-to-back games because it was the only way schedule-makers could prevent teams from having to travel on consecutive weekends.

However, the schedule will change next season to eliminate back-to-back games. Each team will travel on consecutive weekends once every four years.

Next season, Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount will travel two weekends in a row but will not do so again until 2005.

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Road victories over Santa Clara and San Francisco last weekend extended the Waves’ winning streak to six games and positioned them as the most serious challenger to defending WCC champion Gonzaga.

“Obviously Gonzaga has put [itself] out there as the team to beat.” van Breda Kolff said. “We are on par with them after two weeks by doing the little things. We’ve been getting the long rebounds, taking charges and making free throws. That’s what it takes to win.”